Yes, We're Satisfied With Our Care! October 2015 TR **NEW 8/21 Final Thoughts

[khertz]

Excited to read your report, we're planning on a Universal trip (our first one) sometime in the near future and I really want to stay at the Hard Rock! I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip!

Welcome!!

We have always been big Universal fans, but with all the changes they have made in the past few years (Harry Potter, Springfield) and stuff they have coming (Skull Island) we are just obsessed now! I was glad this trip we had decided to dedicate 2.5 days to Universal to have plenty of time to check it out. And we loved our HRH stay!

 

[DisneyJo]

It sounds as though you had a great start to your trip, your kids are so cute

 

[Mom2m&k]

So excited you have a new trip report! I have enjoyed them in the past...I can't believe how big your son it and now a daughter too! Can't wait to read more!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Excited for a new trip report! YOur DD is adorable!

 

[khertz]

It sounds as though you had a great start to your trip, your kids are so cute

We actually did, which was nice for a change! Usually our travel days are a bit rough. lol Thank you!

So excited you have a new trip report! I have enjoyed them in the past...I can't believe how big your son it and now a daughter too! Can't wait to read more!

So glad to have you here!

It amazes me how much he has grown. I look back on old TRs and can't believe how different he has been on each and every trip.

Excited for a new trip report! YOur DD is adorable!

Thank you!!

 

[khertz]

Day 1 Continued: Saturday October 17th

DH went to check in, but our room was not yet ready. So we left our luggage with baggage services and picked up from them the stroller we had rented from A Baby’s Best Friend. The front desk said they could call when our room was ready, so we headed out in search of food. The walk to City Walk didn’t take long at all! Even less than when we had stayed at Royal Pacific.

Oct 01-019 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
DS with his inflatable guitar the front desk had given him


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Oct 01-021 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
Our first glimpse of the Studios!


Oct 01-022 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
And a little closer​

However, just as we had gotten through bag check there, DH’s got a text from the hotel saying our room was ready! You would think they could have told us that it would be less than 10 minutes?! We debated going back and bringing our stuff up to the room, but hunger won out. After making a pass through City Walk and discussing food options, we ended up at Red Oven Pizza Bakery.

Oct 01-023 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
The Islands tower in the distance!


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DH ordered a pepperoni pizza and I went with the margherita pizza. We decided against getting one for DS because they looked pretty big so we could share ours with him pretty easily. DD was fast asleep in the stroller while we ate.

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Oct 01-017 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

The pizzas were really good! They are made to order, so they are hot and fresh when they came out. It had been a long time since breakfast, so they definitely hit the spot. After we finished eating, we decided I would go back to the hotel to finish checking in and get our room number while DH went to will call to pick up our APs and Halloween Horror Nights tickets he had ordered over the phone before the trip.

That plan was all well and good but I got totally lost trying to take what I figured would be a shortcut through the pool area, but then I couldn’t find the entrance to the hotel from there! I had actually passed it up, so I walked way too far in the heat getting frustrated before I backtracked and found the entrance. By the time I did all that, DH was arriving back at the hotel with our tickets anyway, so we all went to check in together and picked up our bags from bell services.

We went up to our room and while DH started unpacking and slathering DS in sunscreen, I fed DD again, then got myself ready so we could go to a park for at least a little while that evening. It was about 4 pm when we left to go to the parks, so we ended up going to Islands of Adventure that afternoon because Universal Studios was closing early for HHN that night. On the way out of the hotel, we stopped at the Express Pass kiosks to print our EP cards to take with us.

One of the first things we noticed was the work being done on The Incredible Hulk Coaster. What a bummer that we were missing out on one of our favorites! And it won’t be open in February when we go again either. Hopefully it is back up by the time we go again in October this year.

Oct 01-025 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

Then, we decided to check out Seuss Landing first!

Oct 01-026 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

Last time we had been to Universal, we had found out that the High In the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride had a height requirement, and DS had been too short! So this time, he was tall enough so we started there.

Oct 01-027 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

I took him on, and I didn’t have a camera (besides being too scared of dropping my phone to take that out for pictures!), so no photos of our ride. DH took a few while he was waiting for us with DD.

Oct 01-028 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Oct 01-029 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
DD looked like this for 95% of our Universal time!
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DS really loved the train ride, of course! This kid has never met a train he didn’t like. After that, we decided to go check out Hogsmeade. We passed through Lost Continent.

Oct 01-031 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
​

With all of the amazing changes Universal has in the works, I can only hope they find a way to revamp this useless land sometime in the near future.

Oct 01-032 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

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Oct 01-035 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

The sun was absolutely BRUTAL that afternoon, and I had mistakenly forgotten DD’s sun hat and the carrier! The wait for Ollivander’s was surprisingly short, and of course it’s out of the sun, so we decided to do that.

Oct 01-037 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


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Oct 01-039 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

DS was so enthralled with the show! I was secretly hoping he would get picked to match with a wand, but he wasn’t. He was still just happy to watch though. I was holding DD up with her face looking over my shoulder behind me, and I caught the TM working inside making silly faces at her and trying to get her to smile! Lol

Forbidden Journey was posting a long wait time, so we observed Hogwarts from afar for now.

Oct 01-040 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
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We stopped next in Jurassic Park, but DS was too scared to ride the River Adventure, and the wait for Pteranodon Flyers was 45 minutes (no Express Pass offered for that one), so we just walked through for now and enjoyed the atmosphere.

Oct 01-041 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Oct 01-042 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Oct 01-043 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

We could see progress happening on the new Skull Island expansion including the upcoming King Kong attraction. So much still happening at Universal! I can’t wait until this is done. I think it’s going to be amazing!

Oct 01-044 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

We kept walking over to Marvel Superhero Island so that DH and DS could ride Spider-Man. This was a first for DS because he had still been a little too short on his first trip to Universal. Since it was so hot outside, DD and I waited inside of the dump shop while they rode.

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Oct 01-052 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

I was a little worried of how DS would do on this ride, but DH said he was actually okay. He wasn’t scared, he just sat there holding on tight! After that, we were ready to leave the park. It was hot, crowded, and we were exhausted after a long travel day. DS started saying he was hungry as we walked back to the room. DH and I were still kind of full from our pizzas earlier, so we decided not to stop to eat in City Walk again. Instead, we went back up to the room and while I bathed the kids, DH went down to the pool bar to order some food to go. And he relaxed with a beer while waiting for it to be ready.

Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

He came back with 2 kids meals, a chicken tenders meal and a triple grilled cheese meal. They were both a TON of food, way more than DS could ever eat on his own, so the three of us munched on both meals and we still had fries left over. After I took a quick shower, DH had to head out again. He went to the store to get us a few groceries to get through the next couple of days. He also had to meet up with his dad Donald and his dad’s girlfriend Glenda. They were in town on vacation spending time with Glenda’s kids and grandkids who live in Florida. Usually they go to the parks while they are there, but they had decided just to do HHN one night. Since DH had bought APs, he was also able to get HHN tickets at a discount. They were going to the party the next night, and DH was planning to stay inside of the park after it closed to day guests so that he wouldn’t have to wait in the long lines to get in for the party, but everyone else coming wouldn’t have daytime park admission, so he had to get them their tickets earlier.

We were all so tired that night that both kids were asleep by 8:30 pm, and I went to bed right after them! DH got back from his errands around 9:30 and went to sleep as soon as he could. It had been a long day! And our next day’s plans included early entry at Universal Studios starting at 7 am, so we had the alarms set for a VERY early morning!!

UP NEXT: Not so Bright & Early!

 

[IowaTater]

I didn't know they were doing a Skull Island expansion at USO. That sounds kind of cool. I did hear they were closing the Twister ride and changing it to something else (but I can't remember what).

Looks like you guys had a good first day!

 

[missangelalexis]

So silly that your room was ready within a few minutes, they definitely should have mentioned that!

Very fun that you guys got to do some walking around the park a little on the first day, and that DS meets the height requirement for those rides now!

Sounds like a pretty good (and smooth) first day!

 

[khertz]

I didn't know they were doing a Skull Island expansion at USO. That sounds kind of cool. I did hear they were closing the Twister ride and changing it to something else (but I can't remember what).

Looks like you guys had a good first day!

Yeah, they are doing a brand new King Kong attraction. The area looks amazing, so I'm really excited to see what they do with it! They have talked about Twister closing on the Universal DIS Unplugged podcast, and the general consensus seems to be it will be replaced with a Jimmy Fallon experience attraction.

We actually did! I'm glad we got our funky traveling moments out of the way the day before!!

So silly that your room was ready within a few minutes, they definitely should have mentioned that!

Very fun that you guys got to do some walking around the park a little on the first day, and that DS meets the height requirement for those rides now!

Sounds like a pretty good (and smooth) first day!

Right?! I thought the same thing. lol We were hungry, but had we known the room would be ready within just a few minutes, we would have waited and gotten settled first.

It was nice being able to do a park on the first day. Since we have never had Universal APs in the past, we couldn't justify the price of adding another day for just an hour or two in the park on arrival day, so that was nice.

It was definitely a great first day!!

 

[kpsutton]

Oh my, your daughter is so cute!! Love reading about your Universal experience. We keep throwing around whether we will go in 2017 with our 4 year old so it's nice to hear about the experience from someone first hand. Looking forward to reading more about your trip

 

[khertz]

Oh my, your daughter is so cute!! Love reading about your Universal experience. We keep throwing around whether we will go in 2017 with our 4 year old so it's nice to hear about the experience from someone first hand. Looking forward to reading more about your trip

Thank you!

We took DS to Universal for the first time when he was 3 and just shy of 40" so he wasn't able to do a lot. He still had a good time with what he could do, but we were glad we only did one day that trip. It was definitely a lot more enjoyable for us this time now that he is taller and a tad more adventurous. He had a great time, and actually talks about it more now than he does about the time we spent in Disney World!

 

[hokieinpa]

I'm glad your room was ready quickly...but it would have been nice for them to let you know that it was only going to be 10 minutes!

Universal seems like it would be such a big hit with the boys. I think I want to wait until Jake is 40 inches so he can ride all of the super hero stuff. Is there plenty to do for kids under 40 inches?

Hope you're early wake up went smoothly!

 

[amazingact21]

I can't believe your room was ready right after you left.


I've heard good things about Red Oven. I actually had it earmarked for my family for our eventual trip, so I'm glad to hear it was tasty. (And that 2 pizzas were enough for 3 people!)



Wow, Paxton was tall enough to ride Spiderman. I know I say it at some point on every one of your TRs, but it's so hard to believe how grown up he is. It seems like just yesterday you were taking him to Disney for his 1st birthday.



People can't resist making silly faces at babies. I'm sure DD liked the attention, though.

 

[KTwiegs]

yay! a trip report with small children!!! loving it so far!
we leave in one week for our son's very first trip (he is 2) so I am reading any trip report with kids!

 

[khertz]

I'm glad your room was ready quickly...but it would have been nice for them to let you know that it was only going to be 10 minutes!

Universal seems like it would be such a big hit with the boys. I think I want to wait until Jake is 40 inches so he can ride all of the super hero stuff. Is there plenty to do for kids under 40 inches?

Hope you're early wake up went smoothly!

I thought so too! We probably would have waited around and gotten our stuff settled in our room so we didn't have to go back for it later. Gotta say though, that was the only issue we had with our stay at HRH, and it was pretty minor.

There is quite a bit in the way of play areas and stuff for the under 40 set, but not too many attractions, unfortunately. That's why on our last visit in 2013 we limited it to one day only. But for the taller/older ones, it's definitely a boys heaven!

I can't believe your room was ready right after you left.


I've heard good things about Red Oven. I actually had it earmarked for my family for our eventual trip, so I'm glad to hear it was tasty. (And that 2 pizzas were enough for 3 people!)



Wow, Paxton was tall enough to ride Spiderman. I know I say it at some point on every one of your TRs, but it's so hard to believe how grown up he is. It seems like just yesterday you were taking him to Disney for his 1st birthday.



People can't resist making silly faces at babies. I'm sure DD liked the attention, though.

I know, I thought that was so strange! But it was the only problem with our stay there, so I can't complain. It was pretty minor overall.

Oh yeah, it was really good! I'm becoming more and more fond of those brick oven style pizzas like Via Napoli and Red Oven. And it was pretty quick for them making the pizzas fresh.

I know!! I feel like that first trip wasn't that long ago myself. And I feel the same way when I read your TRs and see what new stuff Landon is up to in the parks!

Haha That's so true. She definitely liked the attention!

yay! a trip report with small children!!! loving it so far!
we leave in one week for our son's very first trip (he is 2) so I am reading any trip report with kids!

Welcome aboard! I found so much invaluable information in TRs prepping for DS's first trip back in 2011. I have a TR from that trip, and from his trips at 2 and 3 linked in my signature if you're interested!

 

[KTwiegs]

I just read your whole trip report from your sons 2nd birthday! great info and it gives me an idea of what our trip may be like!

 

[khertz]

I just read your whole trip report from your sons 2nd birthday! great info and it gives me an idea of what our trip may be like!

I'm so glad you found it helpful! It was one of our most memorable trips with him!

 

[jstkpswimming]

Coming out of lurkdom to say I'm really enjoying your report! We plan to bring our newborn son to WDW next January when he'll be just over a year old - Hopefully he'll do as well as your little princess is doing on her first trip! Looking forward to the next update!

 

[khertz]

Coming out of lurkdom to say I'm really enjoying your report! We plan to bring our newborn son to WDW next January when he'll be just over a year old - Hopefully he'll do as well as your little princess is doing on her first trip! Looking forward to the next update!

Thanks for commenting! We had such a good time on DS's first trip when he was about a year old. That's a great age to introduce them to WDW! Hopefully he does just as well and y'all have an awesome trip!

 

[afwdwfan]

(actually, it ended up being the very last week of my leave – we returned home Sunday the 25th and I went back to work the next day!)

That had to be a rough day...

I'm in! I'm glad the flight went so well for you. You never know what you're going to get from the kids, but I'm glad she slept the whole way and made things easy for you.

Our DS is the same way about doing the potty dance at the very last moment. He'll be happily playing one minute and the next, a dead sprint to the bathroom.